Krasus / Korialstrasz

Full History

Among the high mages of the Kirin Tor, Krasus appeared to be a scholar with an unusual grasp of dragons and the distant past. His true name was Korialstrasz. He was a red dragon and consort of Alexstrasza, charged with protecting life under the leadership of the Dragonqueen. When the Dragonmaw clan bound her at Grim Batol with the Demon Soul, her imprisonment was therefore more than an outrage against one dragon. It placed her flight's future in the hands of the orcs who had turned red dragons into weapons.

Open force offered little hope while Nekros Skullcrusher could command the Dragonqueen through the artifact. Krasus entered mortal councils and searched for an indirect way to break her captivity. He helped direct Rhonin, a Kirin Tor mage considered expendable by some of his fellows, toward Grim Batol under the outward appearance of a mission of observation. Beneath that cover lay a determination to free Alexstrasza even if the plan endangered Krasus's standing and Rhonin's life.

Krasus faced obstacles beyond the Dragonmaw garrison. Deathwing, the black Aspect who had helped create the Demon Soul, was scheming in the guise of Lord Prestor and manipulating human politics. The captive red dragon eggs were among his ambitions. Krasus appealed to the other great Aspects, but their divisions and the Demon Soul's power made an easy victory impossible. Meanwhile, Vereesa Windrunner and Falstad accompanied Rhonin through attacks that nearly destroyed the rescue before it reached Grim Batol.

At the fortress the secret schemes finally became an open battle. Krasus returned to dragon form and challenged the power used to keep his queen in bondage. He could not by himself overcome the artifact. Rhonin, however, brought Deathwing's own scale against the Demon Soul and shattered it. With its power broken, Alexstrasza was freed and the Aspects could confront Deathwing without the restraint imposed upon them. The black dragon fled and the Dragonmaw's reign over the red dragonflight collapsed.

The liberation of Alexstrasza revealed Krasus's unusual willingness to work through mortal lives instead of standing apart from them. He had used secrecy, persuasion and risk where a dragon's strength could not prevail. The cost was plain in the companions who died and the dangers Rhonin and Vereesa endured. His success came from enabling others to act, not simply from unveiling his hidden nature.

A later disturbance carried Krasus with Rhonin and Broxigar into the ancient war against the Burning Legion. There he encountered an Azeroth whose lands, peoples and dragons stood before the Sundering. Knowledge of what would come did not grant him mastery of events: he had to struggle beside Malfurion, Tyrande and the kaldorei resistance to prevent Sargeras's arrival. Krasus thus stood at two great turning points, guarding both the Dragonqueen's freedom and the world whose future the Legion sought to erase.